FMDQ becomes full blown securities exchange, to compete wholly with NSE, others

FMDQ Securities Exchange Plc on Monday formally launched its new status and corporate identity as a full fledge securities exchange with registration to trade in all securities including fixed income, equities, derivatives, commodities and foreign exchange.

Formerly known as FMDQ OTC Securities Exchange, the transition of FMDQ from an over-the-counter (OTC) platform to a full-blown securities exchange represents a paradigm shift in the Nigerian capital market. It ends the unwritten mono-stock exchange policy and opens up the capital market to intense competition.

Nigeria’s apex capital market regulator, Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) approved the amendment of the registration of FMDQ OTC Plc from ‘an OTC Market’ to a fullfledged ‘securities exchange’ in March 2019.

FMDQ then secured necessary approvals for a name change to ‘FMDQ Securities Exchange Plc (FMDQ Exchange) with immediate effect, thereby aligning its name to its upgraded status in the capital market.

Furthermore, in June 2019, the exchange received SEC’s registration of its wholly owned central securities depository subsidiary – FMDQ Depository Limited, which is positioned to provide collateral caching, custodian and settlement services with excellent operational capabilities tailored to provide value to its stakeholders.
FMDQ Depository Limited completes the value chain of pertinent market infrastructure in the Nigerian financial markets, particularly the posttrade spectrum, following the operationalisation of FMDQ Clear Limited.

FMDQ noted Monday that the implications of its new status are far-reaching as the careful implementation of the FMDQ Entities – FMDQ Exchange, FMDQ Clear and FMDQ Depository – have not only created robust linkages between hitherto fragmented spheres of the markets, but also presented the market with an efficient, innovative and integrated financial market infrastructure (FMI) group for the seamless execution, clearing and settlement of financial markets transactions.

Having set the pace in the fixed income, currency and derivatives markets, FMDQ Exchange, as a full-fledged securities exchange, will position itself to cover new markets equities and commodities – in the near- to mid-term.

Bola Onadele Koko, managing director, FMDQ Securities Exchange Plc (FMDQ Exchange), said the development of the Exchange over the last five years was reflective of the progressive and dedicated strategic leadership provided by its board of directors, as well as the company’s ever-intensifying commitment to proactively deliver value to its stakeholders.

According to him, having successfully consolidated past gains and taken on new frontiers through the operationalisation of a budding integrated FMI Group across the full value chain of the securities market – execute, clear and settle – the Group is poised to enhance efficiencies in FMDQ’s markets to the benefit of market participants.

He noted that it was in view of the resolute affirmation of the FMDQ entities to influence and promote sustainable development in the Nigerian financial market, one which is in alignment with global standards, that a new identity was unveiled on Monday.

“As it commences its second lustrum, FMDQ as a one-stop FMI Group with a platform to execute, clear and settle transactions in the Nigerian financial markets, remains committed to collaboratively deliver innovative and forward thinking solutions to the market,” Onadele Koko said.

The erstwhile OTC Exchange commenced operations in November 2013, following its launch as an OTC market, primarily to organise the interbank market with focus on the fixed income, currency and derivative markets, and as a self-regulatory organisation, providing a world-class governance structure for the markets within its purview.

In view of this, FMDQ Exchange set out to transform the markets, in line with its audacious agenda to make the markets globally competitive, operationally excellent, liquid and diverse; commonly known by market participants as FMDQ’s GOLD Agenda.